On April 7 in New Orleans, I had the privilege of presenting a paper at the 2017 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians. It was part of a panel solicited by the Society for U.S. Intellectual History, called "Bonds of Reflection: Tracing the Imagined Community in Early America."

Jessica Parr, Eran Zelnik, Andrew Shocket, and I (with comments in absentia by Margaret Sankey) discussed metaphors by which to understand the intellectual relationships that knit together various communities or publics in early America. My paper, entitled "Exploring the Early American Intellectual Archipelago, 1783-1815: Booksellers' Newspaper Advertisements in Port Towns," expanded on part of my dissertation work to make a case for the importance of understanding the early republic book trade as a thoroughly maritime business.

This was my first time at an OAH annual meeting. It was great to spend some time in New Orleans (in a week with perfect weather), to catch up with friends I had not seen in a long time, and to meet some longtime social media friends in person.